Welcome to Day 2 of Event #52: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em at the 2017 World Series of Poker. From the 1,580 players who started yesterday, 246 will return today to play 10-and-a-half 60-minute levels. As 237 players will be in the money, the bubble is expected to burst quite early at the start of the day. The minimum cash will be $2,254, but they will all be trying their best for that WSOP gold bracelet and $364,438 for first place.
The chip leader is Kework Besiktasliyan with 177,400, gunning for his first-ever bracelet. Trailing behind him in the chip counts are Kyle Muelrath (131,500), Parker Drew (119,300), Griffin Malatino (116,500), Finn Zwad (113,700) and Jean-Pascal Savard (108,600).
There are still lots of other notable names to pay attention to as well, such as Kelly Minkin, Rainer Kempe, Cary Katz, Dan Heimiller, Tony Dunst, Jason Mercier, Joe Elpayaa, Jeff Madsen, Eugene Katchalov, Barry Greenstein and many, many more.
Day 2 will kick off at 12 noon on Wednesday in the Miranda room, and the bustouts should go quickly after the bubble has burst. So keep following the live updates here on PokerNews to find out who will make it to Day 3 and have a shot at taking that bracelet home.
When players resumed after their first break of the day there was a notable absentee from his seat. 2016 WSOP Player of the Year and five-time bracelet winner Jason Mercier was over in the Brasilia room playing in the $3,000 Limit Hold'em 6-Max Day 2 where there are 68 players remaining.
39 of them will get paid and with Mercier sitting pretty with an above-average stack in this event, he will be hoping to make the money in another tournament today.
Got Aa in vs JJ on the 2nd hand of day 2. To double up. Now in the money of the 1500 NLH
We saw Tony Dunst heading to the payout cage and Pratig Ghatge told us how Dunst, who has nearly $3M in lifetime earnings got his final 34,000 chips in with against Ghatge's .
There was no help on the flop, turn, or river, and Dunst was eliminated.
Phill Collins shoved all in preflop for 101,000 in total and was called by Emil Ekvardt, who had him covered.
Phil Collins:
Emil Ekvardt:
Collins needed a lot of help to stay in the tournament, as Ekvardt had a higher pair.
The flop came , giving Ekvardt a set. Collins got up from his chair, as he could see the elimination coming.
The dealer burned a card and revealed the on the turn, and people started peeking at the table to see what was happening. Collins now also had a set and a small chance to stay alive.
The dealer burned another card and put the on the river, giving Collins backdoor quads to win the hand.
There were gasps and sounds of amazement from the nearby places, and some of them wandered over to see what was happening. Collins just sat down again and started stacking up his chips.
On a flop between Mohsin Charania and Cary Katz, both players checked. and the was dealt on the turn. Charania bet 5,000, mimicking a tactic famously used by Katz in this summer's Super High Roller Bowl, where Katz would min-bet turns. It was a tactic he used to great effect, especially on Day 1 of the tournament.
"You want to see a free card with jack-ten?" asked Katz before electing to call.
Charania checked the river, and Katz checked behind, saying, "Jack's good."
Charania shook his head and went to muck, but not before Katz turned over for ace-high. Then Charania mucked.
"You need to bet bigger!" said Katz as he raked in the small but meaningful pot.
Just before the break, another hand was played which ended during the break.
A player in middle position raised to 14,000, JJ Liu called from the cutoff. Emil Ekvardt three-bet to 48,000, and Andy Frankenberger needed some more time to think. The break started, so some of the players walked away from the table. In the end, he shoved all in. The player in middle position and Liu both folded. Ekvardt called, and he had Frankenberger covered.
Andy Frankenberger:
Emil Ekvardt:
The board ran out — no danger for Frankenberger, and he doubled up for the 312,500 he had behind.
Richard Seymour raised from the under-the-gun position, Samuel Phillips three-bet to 92,000 from the small blind. Seymour shoved all in and Phillips called. The stacks were closely matched with Phillips having a slight edge.
Samuel Phillips:
Richard Seymour:
The board ran out to give Phillips trip aces and knock Seymour out of the tournament in 24th place.
against Ghatge's 
.
and Seymour continued for 5,500. Fan called.
turn, this time for 18,000. Fan called.
and Seymour bet once more, this time for 23,500. Fan folded.
off-suit, while Koppel held 
, and Stout was eliminated.
on the turn, and people started peeking at the table to see what was happening. Collins now also had a set and a small chance to stay alive.
on the river, giving Collins backdoor quads to win the hand. 
flop between Mohsin Charania and Cary Katz, both players checked. and the 
was dealt on the turn. Charania bet 5,000, mimicking a tactic famously used by Katz in this summer's Super High Roller Bowl, where Katz would min-bet turns. It was a tactic he used to great effect, especially on Day 1 of the tournament.
for ace-high. Then Charania mucked.
